Authorities found and seized a historic amount of counterfeit goods worth over $1 billion at a storage building in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Officials arrested two men during the seizure of knockoff handbags, shoes, clothes and accessories, the New York Post reported Thursday.
An image shows rows of shelves piled high with items and numerous cardboard boxes on pallets:
The United State’s Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, announced the“largest-ever counterfeit goods seizures” Wednesday describing them this way:
[A]pproximately 219,000 counterfeit bags, clothes, shoes, and other luxury products with a total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (“MSRP”) of approximately $1.03 billion.[1] Two indictments were unsealed today charging ADAMA SOW and ABDULAI JALLOH, a/k/a “Troy Banks,” with trafficking in counterfeit goods.
The footnote caveats that the “street value of counterfeit goods typically is significantly lower than the MSRP.” Sow and Jollah were arrested Wednesday.
According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, it was “the largest-ever seizure of counterfeit goods in U.S. history.”
In August 2022, New York City law enforcement confiscated approximately $2 million worth of knockoff handbags, shoes, and glasses, Fox 5 reported at the time.
However, the outlet noted it was not difficult for potential buyers to find more counterfeit items:
Seller Diango Cisse told Fox, “All the time we watching out for the cops. And the cops, they’re so ruthless.”
In October 2022, a Long Island woman was accused in a $40 million counterfeit goods scheme out of her boutique shop, according to Breitbart News.
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